AS TIME GOES BY, CLOCKS, WATCHES KEEP YOU CURRENT

Fancy timepieces, from personal watches to grandfather clocks, are a classy gift for friends or family at the holidays, and guarantee you'll be remembered throughout the year.

- Rogers and Hollands jewelers offer TAG Heuer, currently one of the most popular lines of sport watches. A new Alter Ego line for women features watches with polished bracelets, quartz movement, water resistance to 100 meters and scratch resistant convex sapphire crystals.

Other options include the men's 4000 and 6000 series. All TAG Heuer watches are water-resistant, have luminous hands and hour markers and sapphire crystals. Prices start at $700.

- Stylish and moderately priced, Fossil has introduced a new line of futuristic BIG TIC watches, featuring digital count of seconds in the watch face as traditional hands circle the hour. Silver bracelet and leather strap versions are available. They are priced from $55 to $65 at all Marshall Field's store except Lake Forest.

- Marshall Field's also features the German-made Movado line of clocks. The TBL000112M features a circle of black smoked glass around a small clock with gold hands ($375); the TS1000116M, suitable for a desk or night stand, is a 3-inch circular silver clock that stands on small feet ($150). The rich MCL000201M has beveled crystal surrounding a black clock face with gold hands ($250). Finally, there is the unique TS1000106M, a 5-inch cylinder with the clock set in an angled top, priced at $130.

- Chicago Clock Company & Gifts, Inc. has an array of traditional musical and non-musical cuckoo clocks, all made in Germany's Black Forest. Over 30 styles are in stock. River City offers a model for $99--one of the season's most popular sellers. Other clocks range in price up to $1,200 and are available in one- or eight-day winding versions.

- Sligh, Howard Miller, and Ridgeway are the manufacturers of classic grandfather clocks available at Chicago Clock Company stores. One unique offering is Sligh's beautiful and ornate grandfather clock with a Sony CD player tucked inside a side door that plays discs instead of the traditional chimes ($3,500). Three CDs with different musical selections and styles are included.

- Truly a collector's item, Kieninger's wall clock has a mahogany finish and a genuine porcelain dial. Most dials are stamped in metal or brass, making this porcelain model unique. Only 500 of these clocks were made, and each is individually numbered. It's $3,650 at Chicago Clock Company.

- Rhythm Magic Motion Clocks can't be ignored. As the hour strikes, a panel on each side of the clock opens, revealing members of a musical band that play every sixty minutes. The clock ($479) comes in gunmetal gray with a gold bezel around the clock face. Also available as a flower with petals that open on the hour or figurines striking bells. Available at Chicago Clock Company.

- What will they think of next? Your expensive wrist watch that relies on arm and hand movement instead of batteries can stay wound whether you wear it or not with Watch Winders automatic winding devices. One-, two-, and four- watch models spin and twirl simulating your wrist's movement. The battery-powered single-watch versions is $200. An electric single-watch model is $130, and the two-watch model is $300. Buy on-line at www.watchwinders.com or call 312-527-9111.